From mud huts, umqomboti and straightback to penthouses, expensive weaves and moet!

Majuba 89

In all honesty I just wanted these people out of my life. I had to get a new job

and move on. The worst part is that the person who was meant to give me a recommendation was dead and we were supposed to start a new tender with the people I was meant to get away from. My mother who was a very impulsive person was the type to get you into more trouble in anything than fix things. I sat there for a while thinking whether or not I should dash to my mother’s but I convinced myself that the answer was no. There was a knock on my car window which startled me. It was Londiwe’s mother.

“Yes Mma!”

I said coming out of the car to meet her outside. It would be rude for me to talk to her sitting down and she standing.

“Vusi can I talk to you privately?”

She said. There was no one else with us but I guess she was trying to tell me that this was a serious conversation.

“Yes sure no problem Mma!”

I responded respectfully.

“I remember the first time my daughter told us about you. She has always been the type to bring home men who were bad for her then you came along. I remember thinking she made you up because you were too good to be true.”

She explained. I had never been told this story before so it sounded so weird being praised like this.

“I would like to believe that I am still the same person that was introduced to you at the beginning but so many things have happened since then!”

I explained.

“I would wish so too so imagine what it felt like her telling me that you want another wife and this is even before you marry her. How can you do this? Vusi please don’t do this. My daughter does not need this in her life!”

Her mother said to me.

“Do you think I want this? She is the one who convinced me to do it. We had our problems as you might know and she moved out!”

I told her.

“When was this?”

She asked me I could see from the look on her face that she did not anything about this.

“You didn’t know this?”

I asked her.

“No I did not!”

She responded.

“Mma your daughter packed everything in my flat and moved out. She even took the food in the fridge that’s how bad things were!”

I explained to her mother. I don’t know how she could not have known but clearly she did not so I should not bother trying to make sense to her.

“Why did you not call me? I would have spoken to her and she is not too old to get a hiding either for being stupid!”

Her mother said. I know she was teasing about the hiding and I laughed at that part.

“I know you love my daughter please let us not lose this relationship we have between us. Every woman wants to know that she is loved and she is alone in that relationship.”

She pleaded with me.

“You will need to speak to your daughter on this because I am respecting her wishes. There is a lot more she needs to tell you so it’s not all about me!”

I told her. She did not like what I told her I guess because she walked away briskly after that and all I could hear from there was shouting. I was not going to hang around I drove off and left her there. She will call when she needs me and besides she was the one who had set me up. When I got to the house I just wanted to lie down.

“Vusi hi!”

Someone said from behind me as I tried to open the door. It was Nobuhle and the last time we had spoken had not ended so well.

“How are you?”

I said nervously trying to get quickly away from her. The problem was the key had a tendency to get stark so I had to toggle it.

“Can I come in and talk to you privately? I want to talk to you about what happened the other day!”

She said to me but I was not going to fall for her coming into the house like this alone.

“No thanks we can talk here it’s just…”

As I said that I found myself cursing,

“Shit!”

I said angrily.

“What’s wrong?”

She asked.

“I just broke the key to my place now I need to call the plumber! This is all I need on such a shit day!”

I said angrily. I picked up my phone to dial only to discover that my battery was flat.

“Now my battery is flat!”

I said.

“Its ok calm down you can come and charge at my place and I think we have a number somewhere!”

She said casually. This was a bad idea as is but I needed to get into my place. I had things to do.

“Ok thanks will do!”

I told her as I followed her. She had not even locked her door the way she was so confident of that man of hers protecting her I guess.

“You should always lock the door her. It’s not safe!”

I told her.

“If I lock what if I break the keys like you did?”

She teased.

“Ok you have a point there. Where is the big guy?”

I asked her referring to the Big Nigerian.

“He is not in the country he will only be back next week!”

She explained.

“And that’s partially the reason why you are here! I need help; I locked myself out of the computer. I was a bit drunk last night and I wanted to Skype with him then I locked the whole system out. Is there a way you can bypass it for me so I can reset?”

She asked me. I looked around her flat and indeed there were two bottles of wine lying around. I knew this woman drank a lot too because I had seen her a lot of times.

“Ok no problem but first we call the locksmith!”

I told her as I remembered why I was here. I was already charging my phone at this point. The lock smith said he will be with us in about two hours which gave me plenty of time to crack the password. A lot of people think that their passwords will protect them when their phones or laptops get stolen but the reality is anyone who knows his stuff can crack those passwords under 30 minutes exposing you to the world.

“Thank you so much. Do you mind if I go bath in the meantime? I am going out with my sisters and I can’t be late!”

She told me.

“Yeah sure go ahead!”

I told her. It was better than having her distract me in any case. Being on a computer like this made me so happy. I loved computers that’s why I was a programmer in the first place. It was not an accidental degree so sitting here right now doing something so simple just made my life so much simpler and put my things in perspective. My phone rang and it was Tumi,

“Dude where are you? You have been too quiet how did things end?”

He asked me. I had not spoken to him about what happened at the police station so he was still in the dark.

“You only call a day later! What kind of friend are you?”

I asked him.

“I called didn’t I? The fact that you picked up your phone means that you are not in jail at least or dead!”

He said thoughtlessly as usual.

“And why would I be in jail Tumi? What did I do?”

I asked him.

“It was a bad joke man come on why are you being like this though? You seem like you are angry at me and I don’t know why?”

He asked me. I had been snappish of him lately because when this tender opportunity came he had come running for it and when problems started he did not want to take responsibility.

“I am not angry at you but is there something you want?”

I asked him curtly. I don’t have time for friends who don’t have my back actually.

“Eh I see you are in a bad mood I will call you again later!”

He said.

“Yeah shap!”

I had not even hung up the phone when my phone rang again. Honestly what was life like before cell phones?

“Hi Vusi, it’s me I have great news!”

It was Naledi’s father! What did he want now? This guy had turned my life upside down already since I met him. The police were looking at me for a murder he most likely played a hand in and I was about to marry his beautiful but crazy daughter.

“Yes sir what’s going on?”

I asked him politely. See the signs of a coward! I can vent and hate him when I am alone but the moment he speaks I become nice.

“We have got the appointment letter! As this project is a hurried one as the department is lagging behind they want to do a briefing as soon as possible with the Chief I.T officer from our side and the CFO. That’s you and Naledi!”

He said cheerfully.

“Naledi? I don’t understand, don’t you need an accountant to be your CFO?”

I asked him. He paused for a moment before he responded.

“Ok son you really need to know your fiancé more ebile how are you even getting married if you don’t even know that your wife to be is an accountant by qualification and even has experience in the field?”

He asked me and by the tone he had used I could sense his skeptism.

Imagine that?

An accountant too?

They are just giving away these degrees for free nowadays clearly! As I was thinking this I had a loud thud followed by glass breaking then a scream. It was Nobuhle,

“Nobuhle are you ok in there?”

I asked jumping up.

“Vusi please come in help!”

She cried out in pain. I opened the door and there she was on the floor holding her head. She was bleeding.

“Help!”

She said to me and I froze for a second there because she was naked like the day she was born.

The greatest writer ever! You really have managed to capture our imaginations hey.

I am a 39 year old woman and I have a problem. When my husband and I got married he cheated on me with another woman. They had a child together. He came and he confessed but I never forgave him fully. The woman of it was a young girl and she was in university and I was already working at the time. I was so heartbroken at the time and it was really the worst experience I had ever gone through. I hated that man and at the time I was pregnant with our own child. As fate would have it the woman died when her baby was only 2 years old. The baby had nowhere to go and my husband and his family came and begged me for the girl to come stay with us. I did not want this but I also could not live the child on the street. She grew up polite intelligent and is even lined up for scholarships yet she is only 16. She is genius level smart whereas my child who is younger than her is extremely dumb. I have tried everything with my daughter and at 15 she is already sleeping around, running away to parties and she has never been good in school. Her father loves the other one more because of her intellect and all the awards she gets. I am ashamed to say that even I love her more and I envy her at the same time because she is everything a daughter should be. I don’t show this openly because I don’t want my own daughter to have more reasons to be rebellious. Eventually 2018 I sent her to boarding school because that’s how much I failed. I was tired of lecturing, beating her and sending her to grandparents. I took her to a psychologist 2 years ago and she said the reason why she is like this was because it’s fun. That’s was the answer from a 13 year old. Even the psychologist laughed.

Guys what do I do to save my daughter? I feel like she will be dead by the time she is 18 the way she is too much. How do I stop myself from loving my step daughter more than my own? It surely is a problem.

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6 thoughts on “Majuba 89”

no, no, no q&a, you are not a bad mom. anyway, le nna I laughed a bit, I mean seriously, it’s fun.
be patient hey, she will be ok. just continue to show her love and support. listen to her attentively, and I can assure you that behind that rebellion there is a sweet fragile girl. don’t compare her with her big sis.

Anonymous,as you say the step child is smart and therefore getting a whole lot of affection and support from you and your husband….So your child can see all of this and she may also be envious of the step child and therefore being rebellious to gain some kind of attention from you even if its because of bad behavior….so don’t give up on her as that may even cause her behavior to spiral more out of control,continue showing her the needed love and affection so that she can know shes loved and even if the world goes on to reject her but she can always return to a loving home and parents….

Bad Mom
– maybe she just feels left out and just wants some attention. I think she feels that as she is not super smart she is not loved like the “genius baby” so she might as well set her own trend…….as screwed up as it might be but it is hers.
Try and get other things that she can partake on that she is good at so that she will also be on the receiving end of praises. akekho umuntu ongathanda ukunconywa.

Dear bad mom. You’re not a bad mom, this is a tricky situation in that, you’re dealing with two very different individuals. You need to see both your daughters as individuals, who don’t think the same, don’t act the same and don’t aspire to be ‘best daughters’ but just your daughters. I say this because all my life, I was labelled as the ‘ innocent, smart, miss perfect’ and it came with it’s pressures. Pressure to uphold people’s perception of me. Pressure to not make stupid mistakes that people need to make while growing up and not getting into sticky situations, because I ‘was too smart and level headed’ for that. My sister on the other hand was a rascal who had no filter and no limitations. She was always compared to me and I couldn’t make a bad decision, because they’d blame her. ‘Ufundisa umntana izinto ezimbhi!’ Imagine! That impacted us both because she knew, no matter how much she tried she could never measure up to me. And I knew that no matter how much I wanted to go to that party, skank around, get that piercing, it would be seen as her influencing me. But more than anything I have come to see is how when you look at your children as their failures and successes you completely miss the point of this parenting thing. I may have my shit together, but it means that everyone assumes I’m all good, that I don’t need help or an ear, or support because to them, ‘ I got this’. It also means I hold alot of resentment towards my parents for focusing only on my rebellious sister. But even so, the reasoning good child in me, knows how badly my sister had it being seen under my light and noone ever stopping to see that hers shines a different colour but not a different brightness. You are worried about your rebellious child, you need to be worried about both your children. Get to know them both. Speak to your rebellious daughter, get to know her. You’d be surprised at how smart she is. Take a liking to her interests. Our parents are turning out to be their parents because they want their kids to be what they couldn’t be. People would assume I have role models in books, but the one person who I admire the most, is my sister. I envy her spirit. Good luck ma

Dear QnA, your daughter is not less smart. It might be that she simply has learning difficulties. Have you had her assested? She might be finding mainstream challenging. She is then acting out and finding her outlet in areas that are harmful to her progress by focusing on but being class clowns, most popular and most rebellious at school. That ways she feels she belongs and is good at something somewhere. Good luck though